I've booked to see Lazy Lester at the local arts centre in August.
He's on tour in the UK.
He may be 78, but he's still rocking the blues- authentic Louisiana swamp blues, and he blows some great mouth-harp. He also loves country music.
"I'm a Lover, Not a Fighter" from 1958
"I'm a Man"
"Harmonica Blues"
"Rainin' in My Heart"
"Blues Stop Knockin' At My Door"
Not to be missed!
More on Lazy Lester
Update, 11 August.
The show was enjoyable, a good mix of country songs and blues. Lazy Lester is a charming man with a cool, self-deprecating sense of humour. As he said, the reason he's still here today is because he was poor back then, and (fortunately) couldn't afford the pills that killed so many others. He's in pretty good shape!
I enjoyed his covers of Jimmy Reed songs like "You got me dizzy" and "Caress me baby", and some of the slow blues like "When my first wife left me". His version of David Houston's "Almost Persuaded" was deeply moving. He didn't pull off all the country songs, some of which strained the vocal chords in a couple of places if he tried too high a key, but he gave us great versions of Hank Williams' "Your Cheating Heart", the 'Canadian Cowboy' Hank Snow's "I don't hurt any more", Ernest Tubb's "Walking the floor over you" and the traditional "New River Train". On the pop music side, Lee Dorsey's "(Sitting in the)Ya Ya" won plenty of applause.
I would have liked a bit more mouth-harp (the previous night he'd performed as a duo with another musician alternating on harp and guitar) and some of the early Excello hits, but at 79 he certainly ain't lazy, as the lady in the next seat remarked.
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